Golden Sun  The Awakening
by Milaya Milen Zeal
Summary: Chapter 2: The Caretaker nurtures the earth and watches over the plants, struggling to keep the balance while wondering where life will take him.
1. Prologue

_**Golden Sun**_

_**The Awakening**_

* * *

**Prologue**

Legends speak of a force known as "Alchemy", with which the ancients were able to realize their wildest fantasies. It was said that those who had mastered the force of Alchemy could control the four basic elements; Earth, Fire, Wind and Water.

But as the time continued on, the human nature began showing its true, dark colors.

Humans began to abuse Alchemy so as to satisfy their own desires, which began to grow more and more twisted as time dragged on. Alchemy grew into a force that no man could stand against with any hopes of survival.

Thus the few ancients who had not lost their minds to the power of Alchemy saw the need to banish Alchemy from the world altogether.

Unfortunately, they did not realize that by doing so, while saving civilization, they were condemning the world. Alchemy had been what held the world together, and without it, the world began to fall apart.

However, the ancients had left their descendants with a final message;

"To bring back the accursed force of Alchemy, the four lighthouses at the four corners of the world must be lit. Once lit, the Golden Sun will unleash the force of Alchemy, but if this event is to occur, people will only suffer. Thus, the lighthouses are never to be lit."

Yet the lighthouses were lit, and Alchemy returned to the world.

So go the legends.

It is unsure if such an event ever occurred, for the existence of the lighthouses mentioned in the legend has never been confirmed, nor is it known where the so-called "Golden Sun" event occurred.

And as such, these legends were written off as a "myth".

However, people still fear the force of Alchemy because of the legends stating how it had changed people into something much, much darker.

As such began the hunt for those possessing the elemental powers of Alchemy, labeled as "witches". They were widely feared and hunted, with no possible way to fit in properly. And even if they found a way to blend in, they would not be able to suppress their powers well enough to allow them to stay hidden. Eventually, they were bound to give themselves away.

Yet they were the ones who were closest to the planet, and the ones who would end up reliving the ancient legends…

* * *

**This is a Golden Sun story that takes place in "modern day" Earth, meaning that more than 90% of the game's topography has changed, including certain cities and sights. Others might still be there but are known by different names. Unfortunately, I lack the amount of characters I want. If anyone has an idea for Adepts, let me know.**

**I want two Adepts of each element, and each one a different gender. The ones I already have are as follows;**

**Water = 2**

**Fire = 0**

**Earth = 1 (male)**

**Wind = 1 (gender undecided)**


	2. Chapter 1: The Watcher

_**Golden Sun**_

_**The Awakening**_

* * *

**Chapter 1: The Watcher**

* * *

"_…Scientists are still unable to determine the cause of the sudden waterfalls that have been appearing in the midst of the Great Ocean. All that can be said is that they seem to be getting closer to the mainland every-_"

**_Click._**

"And thus it's begun…" a middle-aged man sighed out, shaking his head as he set down the remote. "Or has it been going on for a while already? It's so hard to tell with over half the media being controlled as it is…"

Reaching up, the man lightly tucked a light silver strand of hair behind his ear. His blue eyes were focused on his notebook for a moment as he carefully wrote down what had just been said on the news, before he closed it and reached for a staff that stood beside the table, using it to climb to his feet with a hiss.

His hair was light silver and reached his shoulders easily, though it was secured back into a ponytail. A couple of stubborn strands had refused to be tied up however, and thus framed his face. His eyes were a little rounder than those of most adults, hinting at his obvious European origins, and his clothes were simple and relatively plain.

The only real noticeable fact was his prosthetic left leg. The limb moved shakily as he walked slowly, using the staff for support to reduce his limp. When he was young, everyone would fuss over him and not let him move to get his own food or drinks, and it had always agitated him royally. Being handicapped was one thing, being treated it was another thing altogether, and many handicapped people would say that they hated to be "pampered" like that.

If you had merely broken your leg and would recover soon enough, it was not so bad, but in his case, he would never recover from a lost limb. That was why it had also aggravated him; all of their fussing made him feel like he had completely lost his ability to live his life on his own. It was as if his lost leg had condemned him to a life of immobility in their eyes.

"You're an invalid! You shouldn't move around, so just sit back, relax and let us do the work."

That had been what one of his "nurses" had said to him as a kid. He had always hated her afterward. He would blatantly refuse the food she made, push her away whenever he wanted to get up (if only to move from the bed to the couch in the living room), and, in the end, would not talk to or even look at her.

From that point on, he had started to get up earlier than the nurses to fix his own breakfast and to have a small walk around the block to get some fresh air. No one had been too pleased with that, of course, but that did not stop him. And finally he achieved what he wanted to achieve; the control over his life back.

Walking over to his kitchen, the young man began working on a glass of lemonade, pouring a small amount of syrup in a glass before filling it with just the right amount of water. Sipping from the glass, he shut his eyes as he thought about the current situation.

People claimed that the 'waterfalls' had only appeared recently, but he found that hard to believe. Waterfalls of that size do no 'just' appear, after all. Things like that take time, and a lot of it.

Tapping his fingers on the glass, he wondered just how long they had been planning to cover it up. It was like they expected it to be over soon.

Just then, the doorbell rang loudly, making him look over curiously. "Hold on! Be right there!" he called out, setting down his glass and beginning to limp his way over to the door. Since the door was on the other side of his house, it would take him some time. Luckily, everyone already knew he was not the fastest person in the world, so they did not ring the doorbell more than once.

They did that once and regretted that the moment the door was opened.

Finally reaching the door, he reached out and opened the door, looking out.

"Leo? Is something wrong?" he asked of the man standing on the other side.

The man, Leo, looked back at the other man. "Janus… You have to come see this!"

Janus blinked, cocking his head at the urgency. "Well… if you say so. Give me one moment." Reaching to the side, he pulled his keys off a hook and stepped into his shoes before stepping out of his house, closing and locking the door behind him.

Leo started going ahead, and Janus merely followed without a word, doing his best to keep up with his obvious limp. Leo wasn't going at full speed, for which Janus was glad, but it was still a faster pace than he was used to.

Thankfully, he knew the city well enough to be able to map out where they were going or he might have lost sight of the other man.

"Here!" Leo called out suddenly.

Janus blinked as he walked over, gazing over to where Leo was pointing. And he couldn't help but blink at what he saw. In one of the many canals of the city, some ship wreckage had been washed in, possibly from the seas, but that was not as interesting as what it had carried with it.

A child possibly no older than 10 was clinging to a piece of driftwood, despite being unconscious. But the curious thing had to be the child's blue hair poking out from under a bandana. The child's clothes were also vastly different from what anyone in the city had ever seen, but Janus would recognize it right away. He was smart enough to not mention it, though.

"Poor thing…" he whispered softly.

"I tried to fish 'm out, but I couldn't reach. Think you can get to 'm with your staff?" Leo asked.

"I think so… hold my arm, will you?"

Leo nodded and held onto Janus' free arm as the silver-haired man carefully crouched down while lowering his staff into the canal. When not using his staff for balance, while he wouldn't immediately fall, when he was trying to reach something, it was a lot easier for him to lose his balance. Thus, he was wise enough to at least ask for someone to aid him if he was ever in such a situation.

Moving his staff closer and closer, Janus finally managed to hit the side of the plank that the child was on and carefully pulled it closer, though the other wreckage prevented him from bringing it too close. But Janus was not so easily bested and slipped his staff down the back of the child's shirt, carefully raising it to prevent the fabric from tearing.

"Okay, pull me back."

Leo nodded and stepped back a bit, pulling Janus back to his feet, with Janus focusing on ensuring the child didn't fall right back into the water. It took some time, but he finally got the child back on dry land.

"Cool! Thanks man! Wouldn't have felt right just leaving 'm there…"

"You could have called the police…"

"You kidding? You know how they are… they don't give us enough credit."

"Yeah…"

"…Is he alive?"

"She."

"How can you tell?"

Janus looked at Leo as though he was stupid. "She's starting to get a curvature at the hips. See?"

"…Oh yeah…"

Getting back to his feet, Janus said: "Lift her up, will you? I think it's best if she stays with me for the time being."

"Good plan; sis would throw a fit if I brought her home… she'd think I was some kind of freak."

"Aren't you?"

"Oh shut up."

Janus merely laughed as he started to walk back home, with Leo carrying the girl as he followed. Leo had been one of his closest friends since he was a child, and they always got along pretty well. It was just after Janus' accident that things had started to change, just slightly, though that was mostly because of his parents' influence. As he was handicapped from then on, he had not been allowed to play "straining" games of any kind, which meant he had been forced to watch everyone else play games while he had to sit still and not move at all.

Thankfully, Leo had managed to find a way for Janus to play with them, still. Of course, his parents could not know about it.

Shaking the thought away, Janus opened the door to his house and walked in. "Just lay her down on the couch. I can handle things from here."

"Arrite man. Just don't strain yourself."

"Will do."

Once Leo had left and closed the door, Janus allowed a frown and turned to the girl again.

"Blue hair…" he mumbled, walking over and carefully removing the bandana. Moving some of the strands, he stared long and hard at the roots. "No dark roots… it's her natural hair color."

Pushing himself up, he walked to a small box he kept in his bookcase and pulled out a small, purple gem, emitting a pale glow. After he limped back, he carefully placed it against her forehead. The gem pulsed a few times, but then the glow slowly faded - and then the gem broke apart in his hand.

"So that was it…" he whispered, noting how that seemed to help her complexion a little bit, as it had been almost sickly white from however long she had been in the water. "Her Psynergy was depleted… She might have just discovered she could use it. Hmm…"

Pushing himself up, Janus seemed to think it over for a few moments, before he walked over to the bookcase again, closing the small box and searching the different books he had. Despite that he had them all sorted on alphabet, he rarely ever found the books he needed in one go. He just had too many of them.

Finally, he found the book he had been looking for and walked back to the table, taking a seat and placing the book before him. Most people these days only used e-books, to save on space in their house, but Janus hated the idea. It was the same with the smart-phones they had; too much gadgets on something that should be so simple. Sure, it was "fun", but a phone was meant to make calls, not to play games or arrange email.

Flipping a few more pages, Janus searched for what he was looking for while trying to remember where he had last seen what he was looking for. He was sure it was in this book, just not where, exactly.

Finally, though, he stopped flipping the pages as he found the page he had been looking for. The heading on the page read "Elemental Lighthouses".

"Okay… now, where were you boys?" Janus mumbled to himself, skimming over the text with one finger. "There has to be a clue here and I have to find it…"

If the old myths he had read were correct, he needed to find these "lighthouses" and light them, which would, hopefully, save their world from certain doom. But there was the matter of actually finding them. As much as he had looked, he had been unable to locate the lighthouses mentioned in the ancient texts he had found.

And sadly, all the texts he had found that told him the locations of these Elemental Lighthouses were of places he had never heard off, which made it difficult for him to determine where to begin his search.

Just as Janus flipped another page, though, there was a sleepy murmur coming from the couch, making him turn in his seat to face the small child. She was just sitting up, rubbing at her eyes sleepily. "Urgh… at least they didn' toss the laundry on me 'gain…"

Janus allowed a smile and decided it was time to make his presence known. "Glad to see you back among the land of the living."

Instantly, the girl snapped her head up towards him, wide awake almost immediately. She was staring at Janus with eyes that were colored a light pansy purple, which made him assume that she might have had someone in her family who had a different element than she herself did.

"Whu-wh-wh-who're ya?" she demanded, face scrunching in an angry scowl. "Wha're ya doin' here?"

"…I live here," Janus replied simply.

"…eh?"

"You're in my house. I fished you out of the canal after you drifted into town. My guess is that you were in an accident on a ship, correct?"

The girl paled at those words, which was already enough for Janus to determine he had been right with his guess, and when she started to stammer, trying to think of what to say, he knew for sure that he had been dead on.

"I figured as much." Closing his book again, Janus swiveled his chair around (since he only had revolving chairs in his house) so he could properly face her. "You were quite lucky you were not discovered by the authorities, young lady; they do not have much love for pirates."

When Janus said that, the girl paled drastically and started looking for something she was keeping. "Oh, you don't have to worry about me handing you to the authorities for a 'bounty'," he quipped, making her look up. "If that had been my plan, I would have handed you over while you were unconscious."

Once the girl had managed to calm down a bit, Janus decided an introduction would be wise.

"My name is Janus. What's yours?"

She tensed for a moment, before she frowned almost angrily. "It's Kaa! I'll make sure it's on your tombstone, ya rushin' perv!"

"Scary…" Janus said simply without changing either his tone of voice or his expression in the least. Deciding to drop the issue for now, he moved on to the next question. "So, are you hungry?"

To that, she did not reply right away, but then she frowned and said: "Feed me already ya scurv or I'll pillage your kitchen myself!"

Janus actually laughed at that. "I'll take that as a 'yes', then," he said simply, reaching for his staff and getting up with a hiss to head towards the kitchen. He was getting a little hungry himself, too, actually.

Kaa, blinking a bit to the Janus's staff and limp, muttered a bit to herself, but loud enough for him to hear: "Ya an old sailor or the likes with that limp?"

"Hm?" Looking over slightly in surprise, Janus seemed to consider the response, before he allowed a small smirk. "A shark chomped off my leg when I was a kid, so I got a prosthetic one."

The young pirate gave a wince at the remark, before adding with a shrug "Least it a scurvy accident."

Janus allowed a smile as he made it to the kitchen and started looking around the cupboards for a moment. "Hmm… Let's see… Does pasta sound good to you?"

"What sort of crazy land lubber food is that?"

"Never had pasta, eh? Heh. Well then…" Janus quipped, cracking his knuckles. "Let's get cooking then."

With that, Janus pulled out all the ingredients, a little slower than the average person due to his limp, but still relatively fast. He debated a few moments on whether to go for spaghetti or macaroni, before he shrugged and pulled out the spaghetti - after which he abruptly snapped them in half before dumping them in the steadily boiling water. And once he had the sauce ready, it was just a matter of waiting for the spaghetti to be ready.

Kaa, clearly a bit annoyed as she sat in wait, finally called over to Janus, giving a simple look around as she did so: "How many minutes this gonna be, mate?"

"Not much longer," Janus said simply, keeping his attention on his cooking. "Oh, feel free to look around. Just don't break anything."

He did not bother when he heard the girl get up from the couch to start exploring. While his house was pretty old, it had very little valuables with the exception of the amount of books he had. Everything else he considered to have very little value on its own. Even so, he occasionally glanced over his shoulder toward Kaa to make sure she would stay inside. If she were to go outside, she would probably be caught right away. Since it was now later in the day, it was going to be a lot more busy in the city, so she would be unable to avoid a confrontation.

'Then again…' he wondered absently, hearing Kaa move something behind his back. 'Ah, right, that old thing.'

"Mind not touching that?" he asked, turning around to face her.

"Yaaarh just looken!" she sputtered quickly trying to put it back, but in her haste, she ended up putting the vase a bit too far on the ledge sending it to the floor "…ah sea dogs…"

But just before the vase could hit the ground, the water that had been in the vase sloshed out, hitting the ground - where it promptly shot up and 'caught' the vase in a watery hand. After a few more moments, the water spun around the small table it had been originally standing on, set it down casually, before the water rushed back into the vase.

"Honestly…" Janus said with a small sigh as he lowered his hand. "I don't mind you looking around, but like I said, try not to break anything."

"…SEA DEVIL!" was the young pirate's response, jumping back pointing to Janus with one hand, the other quickly searching for her toy flintlock pistal.

Janus sighed softly. "Oh come on. If I'm a 'sea devil', that would put you in the same boat. Judging from your hair, you're the same as me."

"…if you're saying somethen bout mah parrents I'll skewer you where ya stand…"

"Did I say that?" Janus asked simply, turning back to his cooking. "Though I am a bit surprised that there are still Water Adepts walking around with hair as blue as yours."

"Apets? I ain't no pet ya scurve," Kaa responded in a hiss, still looking for her toy weapon "Dammit where did I put that thing…"

"Not 'a pet'. 'Adept'. Someone who can freely manipulate the natural forces of Earth, Water, Wind or Fire," Janus explained as he poured the spaghetti into a sieve. "…Or as the people of the church like to call people like you and me; 'Witches'."

"Witches…" She paused in her search, looking to Janus with her curiosity peaked. "Okay scurv ya got me attention…"

Janus chuckled as he finished the pasta. "Well, like I said; Adepts can freely manipulate one of the four elements. You and I are Water Adepts, thus…" Janus focused for a moment, bringing up his hands and forming an orb of water between them. "We can control water to a certain extent."

She blinked, looking to him for a few moments though as if he had multiple heads, before shaking her own head muttering "Um, no, I can't."

"You sure?" Janus asked, before he suddenly tossed the bubble of water right at her.

"YARH!" She shouted, quickly bringing her hand up in defense, only to find the bubble turning to a flurry of foam that bumped to her palm instead.

Janus chuckled. "Perhaps you can't manipulate it freely to your will, but the potential's there. Now how 'bout we eat something?" he said casually as he fixed two plates of pasta.

About to respond in anger, Kaa's stomach gave a rumble at the mention and scent of the food, before she frowned out "…if it's drugged an ya try something lubber your 'lubber's gonna be gone the next time you sleep, alright?'

"I wouldn't dream of it," Janus said, placing the two plates on a tray and moving over to the table.

Without another word, the pirate hopped onto the chair opposite of Janus, quickly shoving a good helping of the pasta into her mouth with her bare hand with not much thought to the matter.

However, before she could shove the second 'handful' into her mouth, Janus bopped her on the head with a fork. "I would highly recommend using a fork for this. Look at your hands; they're already dyed orange because of the sauce and your face looks horrendous."

"Yarh! Grrr…fine," she hissed out, taking the fork a bit clumsily stabbing at more of the pasta to eat.

Janus merely chuckled and shook his head briefly, before starting to eat as well.

This kid was definitely something. She clearly had no control whatsoever about her Psynergy and knew even less about Alchemy, but she was still young, which made it a little easier for him to teach her the ropes of the actual use of Psynergy. Of course, the biggest setback would be the girl's stubborn attitude, but that was something he would be able to handle no problem.

After all, he had been a high school teacher for at nearly seven years already, and that left him with some good experience when it came to 'stubborn children'. And who knows… perhaps this child would be able to tell him a few things about how things were really going out there…

* * *

**Janus is my personal creation and I like to call him the "modern day Kraden", since he's got about as much knowledge as said old man at the age of 38.**

**Kaa is the creation of my friend, TJ Shonen, therefore requires his permission for her to be used in other fanfics. Actually, if you want to use Janus, you'll have to ask too, but whatever, you get the point.**

**If you have an idea for an Adept, I'll need the following info; Name, age, hair- and eye color, city and land of birth, weapon(s) of choice, element and a short biography, including a "title" which will be used for their introduction chapter.  
**


	3. Chapter 2: The Caretaker

_**Golden Sun**_

_**The Awakening**_

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Caretaker**

* * *

"_-and now for the weather. The amount of rain will be limited to the southern end of our land and will hardly be much, similar to the previous few days. At night, some light mist, but-_"

**_Click_**

"No rain again, huh?" Lionel murmured softly after moving his hand back so he could rest both hands on the end of his rake and leaned his chin on the back. Blowing at his bangs to get them out of his eyes, he just stared out ahead across the fields, before his straw hat flopped down to land on his nose because of the gust of wind that Lionel had blown against it. "…Et tu, straw hat?" he grumbled, before he stood and adjusted his hat again.

Anyone coming from the city seeing him then would not be overly impressed by him, though he had definitely caught the interest of the local girls of his neighborhood (and it was a big neighborhood). He had messy, brownish blonde hair that definitely needed another wash to make it seem less greasy than it actually was, and his dark green eyes reminded people looking into them of ivy. The little skin that was visible had a strong tan to it, indicating just how often he spent his days out in the field. Right then, the only clothes on him were a torn set of jeans, his traditional straw hit, and a pair of old, wooden clogs that his homeland had always been so famous about.

Not many people were known to actually walk on them that much, since it was a pain to constantly have to carve new shoes whenever you outgrew them, but Lionel had always worn them and he just liked how they felt on his feet and the sound they made when he hurried down the street. When he was young and playing with the other kids, he would use his clogs to expertly imitate the sound of horse shoes striking the cobble roads.

"Maybe I should try to find a new well again… at the rate this is going, this place will be as dry as a cork by the end of the week…" he murmured to himself, heading toward his shed.

It had not been easy to take over after his father got a serious case of Alzheimer, which had become so bad that he forgot almost everything. He even forgot his own family's faces, and, over time, they became strangers that came to visit him.

It had been painful for Lionel and his family, but it was something that did not last long.

As it turned out, his father had known he was forgetting and had been keeping a book with his memories of daily things to try and piece together everything. He kept it in a place where he knew he would always be at least once a day, so that he would never miss it.

And eventually, he couldn't take the forgetting any longer and simply… pulled the plug.

Shaking the memory away, Lionel set aside his rake and pulled out a shovel. "Right… let's get looking for a spring, shall we?"

Lionel knew very well that finding a spring is everything but easy, but he had recently discovered a small trick to finding one when he had been helping out on an old friend's farm. This granted him some confidence that he would be able to find one in no time.

Casually walking across the farm, he sometimes stopped when he found a promising spot, digging his hand into the earth and judging the properties of the ground before pressing on. There were quite a number of spots that seemed promising, but they all ended up being no good. Until Lionel came to the back of the stables.

As he lifted the clod of earth, he watched with a smile as the earth barely slipped through his fingers and was a little darker below the surface than all the other spots he had been at. Grinning, he climbed to his feet and started to push the shovel into the earth, steadily starting to dig through the layers of ground.

If anyone were to ask him what he had been doing, he would respond with "I was checking if the earth below the surface was wet," but the truth was far from that. Lionel had the unique ability to judge the earth's nutrition down to the last digit, and he was well aware that if the ground had enough nutrients, it also meant there had to be water somewhere nearby. He used this ability to make a pixel-perfect calculation of where to find buried springs.

Just as he pushed down the shovel with his foot again, he heard the unmistakable gurgle of water breaching through the earth's surface and laughed. "Found you!" he laughed as he dug out a little more earth, creating a steady puddle of water as the hole he had been digging started filling up.

Studying the new well with a proud grin on his face, he could not help but feel a little proud of what he had accomplished. He had not doubted his own skills, but that did not mean he could not feel like that every now and again.

"Lioneeeeeel!" came a shout from the front of the stables, making him blink in surprise.

"…I know that voice…" Lionel murmured, slinging his shovel over his shoulder and moving around the stables. "Yo, Sasha! What's up?"

The girl that was shouting his name yelped and looked over. She was clutching a flower pot with a small pine tree in it, and he could see some of the glitters from last Christmas that had not been found yet sparkling in the light.

Sasha was an old friend from school. At least from the time when he still went to school. After his father was accepted into the hospital, he had spent most of his time on the farm. Sasha was the only reason he had managed to get a diploma, since she did not mind being his home tutor. They were close friends, but not as close as some people liked to think.

Mostly because of one factor that, despite that Sasha could do nothing about it, turned Lionel off.

"Lionel!" she cried, running over. "My tree is not doing well at all! I did just as you said, but it's not working!"

Lionel blinked curiously, looking at the tree that she had almost shoved under his nose, before he pushed his shovel into the earth to ensure it would not tip over. The small tree had definitely seen better days; its branches lacked several of its needles and looked rather bare. The lack of needles also made it look skinny, for some curious reason.

"You've given it enough water?"

"Yes!"

"Put it in a new pot whenever it grows with fresh earth?"

"Yes!"

"Talk to it every now and then?"

"Ye-um… no…?"

Lionel sighed heavily. "I thought as much." Lightly taking the pot from Sasha, he said simply: "Most plants that are kept were fertilized indoors, so they don't need much talking to, but trees are not meant to stay indoors forever. If you want this tree to grow better, you need to talk to it every now and then so that it has a reason to grow."

"But… I-I don't know what to say…" Sasha whined, pouting sadly.

"So why don't you sing, then?"

"EEEHHH!" Sasha's face flared bright red. " I-I-I can't do that!"

"Why not?" Lionel asked as he picked up his shovel and started walking to the shed with Sasha right behind him. "You sing very well."

"B-b-but…!"

Lionel knew very well what the problem was; Sasha lacked the courage to sing in public, and usually ended up singing alone in her room. The only reason why Lionel knew was because he caught her 'red-handed', so to say. He never made fun of her, though; she actually was a good singer, and he would not be surprised if she ever became famous. It was just that little matter of her stage fright that was stopping her.

"Well, why don't we head inside and see what we can do?" he offered after putting away the shovel and locking the door to the shed.

"Yeah, okay…"

The walk to Lionel's house was rather uneventful, and before long, they were standing in the kitchen, where Lionel set the pot on a plate on the table. Despite being born and raised in a farming community, Lionel did own a computer, but it sat unused most of the time. The only time he really used it was at night after he had finished his daily chores, and even then it was never for long. He did not have a TV or a game console, though, since that was something he most definitely had no time for whatsoever. Not to mention there was never anything good on TV, and he just was not interested in the modern day video games.

"Right!" Lionel said after washing his hands and face and dropping his straw hat on one of the old vases he had standing around. "Let's see if we can help this little guy, eh?"

Sasha nodded meekly as they settled at the table, each on opposite sides. For a few moments, they merely sat there as Lionel spun the small pot around a few times, testing the moisture of the earth and the sturdiness of the pot itself.

"Well, it looks fine for the most part. It just seems a little sad."

"Then what do I do?" Sasha asked, pouting sadly.

Lionel did not respond for a few moments, before he quipped: "Why don't you try singing?"

"I can't do that!"

"Why not?"

"Because… um… b-because…"

"No one's listening."

"_You're_ listening!"

"So? You know I won't laugh."

"But…"

Lionel and Sasha just stared each other down for a while, before Sasha sighed heavily and dropped her head on the table. "You're not letting me leave 'til I do, huh?"

"Well, you're definitely not gonna do it if you leave now, so… yeah."

Sasha groaned in annoyance, before pushing up. "Okay, okay… fine. I'll do it. But if you tell anyone about it…"

"I wouldn't dream of it," Lionel said with a smile.

Sasha continued pouting for a few moments, before she sighed, resigning herself to the 'chore', and closed her eyes lightly before she started singing softly. Lionel was not good with songs, so he had no clue what song it actually was, but that did not matter at this point. The point was that Sasha had closed her eyes, giving him the opportunity he needed.

Reaching out and holding his hands just beside the tree, he focused for a moment, letting pale green energy surround his fingers, before it was siphoned into the small tree. The tree immediately absorbed it and, slowly but surely, it began to grow more needles and its bark turned slightly darker. It even grew a few centimeters.

Stopping the flow as Lionel noticed the song was ending, he smiled at Sasha when she peeked her eye open. "Well, I think it helped. See for yourself."

"Eh?" Blinking curiously, Sasha looked down at the tree and gasped in surprise. "Eeeeh? H-how did…!"

"I'm guessing your singing helped it feel better quite a bit," Lionel said, though he knew there was really more to it.

"R-really? W…wow…" Sasha was staring at the small tree with surprise and wonder, and it made Lionel's smile widen a little.

"See what a little singing can do to someone? Even plants."

"I… y-yeah… wow… that's amazing!" Sasha cooed, resting her arms on the table and placing her chin on them to look up at the tree on the table. She giggled. "From this angle, it looks like a big tree already."

Lionel laughed. "Well, if you keep raising it as you have, it should be fine."

"Yeah…" Sasha said with a smile, before she tilted her head around the tree to look at Lionel. "And you'll be fine, too. I just wish you'd settle down with a nice girl sometime and have a drink or something."

At that, Lionel blinked, before he smiled and shook his head. "I don't drink, you know that." Moving forward to rest one arm on the table and lean on the other hand's knuckles, he continued with: "I find it a waste of one's brain cells and time. Why would anyone want to get drunk to do things better if you're going to forget you ever did them the next day? And besides, you know that there aren't any girls of my taste in town."

Sasha actually laughed at that. "Oh right, right. I forgot; you don't go for the boobies."

"Hey now… I just prefer girls with a little more muscle and a little less baggage. So sue me."

Sasha merely giggled, and Lionel allowed a small chuckle of his own.

Of course Sasha knew; it was the reason why the two of them never worked out. It was not the fact that Sasha was a bad girl, it was just that Lionel's taste did not make her seem like a good match for him. She understood that and did not hold it against him. In fact, she often tried to help him find someone, but thus far, all her attempts had ended in failure.

"Maybe you should head on home. Don't you have work later?"

"…Ah fiddlestick!" Sasha yowled as she shot up. "You're right! God, how did I forget that! Sorry I gotta fly! I'll treat you to lunch sometime! T.t.y.l.!"

Lionel allowed a chuckle as he quipped: "T.t.y.l.t.," just before Sasha rushed out of the door.

Shaking his head a bit, Lionel stood and snagged up his hat, putting it back on his head and heading back out. "May as well get back to work… Need to make a well around that little spring, too."

As he headed out, he looked down at his hand. The technique he had used on the tree had been something he had learned to do early on in his life, but he only seldom used it. For one simple reason; his mother told him not to, because it was considered to be 'devilry' and people would come to hunt him down. He never understood her logic, but he never questioned it. But whenever no one was around, he would use a little bit of his powers to try and get better at it. No one was allowed to know he had these kind of powers, so he always made extra sure that no one could see him.

Children often came to see him with requests on help to take care of their plants, and he usually ended up using a little of his power to ensure a safe growth. Those children were always so easily amused with watching plants bloom.

At that thought, Lionel sighed. He loved kids; hell, he wanted kids of his own, too. Quite a bunch if he was totally honest, but really, that was not something most kids his age would think about. They would tell him he was crazy to think about children at the age of 19.

Oh well.

Shaking it off, he hurried off to get back to work. The day was long and he still had a lot to do.

But there were times he often wondered what life had in store for him. Sure, his mother would often say he was meant to do something amazing, but really? He did not believe in stuff like fortune telling or fate of destiny or whatever you called it.

Things happened as they happened, and all one can do is give their input in the matter to try and change the exact order of events, but little else.

Looking up to the skies, Lionel frowned as another thought crossed his mind.

"No rain again… That's not good… these are the 'wetlands', it's not supposed to suffer a drought…" A frown marred his face at this point. "I wonder if it's related to those other natural incidents around the world… Waterfalls in the middle of the ocean, droughts everywhere except when there's floods… What is going on with this world?"

Shaking it off, Lionel headed off to get to work. It would not get done on its own, after all.

* * *

**Lionel is our first Earth Adept to show up on the scene. Kudos if you can guess his weapon of choice (it's kind of obvious given his profession, but oh well).**

**Anyway; the updated list of Adepts:**

**Earth = 1 (male)  
**

**Fire = 1 (female)  
**

**Wind = 2  
**

**Water = 2  
**


End file.
